Legislature urged to amend current racial-profiling act

Connecticut lawmakers and civil rights leaders are once again urging
the state Legislature to amend the current racial-profiling act to
ensure that the law receives proper oversight and enforcement.
Under the current act, Connecticut police departments are not to
practice racial profiling and are required to submit annual
traffic-stop reports and complaints of alleged discriminatory stops to
the African-American Affairs Commission for review.
Since enacted in 1999, however, some say the law, championed by the
late Bridgeport Sen. Alvin W. Penn, has been largely unenforced by the
state due to budgetary and staffing concerns.
Glenn Cassis, executive director of the African-American Affairs
Commission, said that last year only about 27 of the state's police
departments collected and reported the data, which is mandated under
state law. Recently, he said, the number has gone up as more attention
has been focused on the issue due to the alleged police discrimination
in East Haven, where four police officers were arrested by the FBI.
And, a recent report by the Hartford Courant found racial disparities
in police traffic stops.
Cassis said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's recent push toward enforcement in
response to the incidents could also have contributed to the rise.
In an attempt to ultimately strengthen the act, state lawmakers and
members of the Latino and Puerto Rican and African-American Affairs
Commissions are recommending changes to the bill that would shift the
responsibility of data reviewing and reporting to the state's Office
of Policy and Management.
Advocates of the amendment say OPM will be better equipped to process
traffic stop and other police data, as well as have the ability to
penalize departments that do not comply with the law.
Black and Puerto Rican Caucus Chairman Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield,
D-New Haven, said the renewed effort to pass the proposed changes this
session comes in response to the incidents in East Haven. He said he
is disappointed that similar legislation on the issue failed to make
it out of the General Assembly's Planning and Development Committee
last year.
"There is no one in this building who has any legitimate reason why
they would vote against or work against a bill to fix the bill that
passed in 1999," he said.
Holder-Winfield, however, acknowledged that the majority of
Connecticut police officers do not practice racial discrimination.
Redding police Chief Douglas Fuchs, the president of the Police Chiefs
Association, said in a statement that police chiefs throughout the
state are committed to protecting all citizens equally. He said his
association believes that "the entire data collection process is
inadequate and flawed" and does not accurately represent law
enforcement practices in the state.
He said his association has been in contact with the African-American
Affairs Commission regarding diversity training and data collection
and analysis.
In January, Malloy called for greater enforcement of the current
anti-racial profiling act, by directing his staff, along with the
Department of Transportation, to ensure the collection and submission
of traffic-stop data by police departments for analysis and report.
Isaias Tomas Diaz, the Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission
chairman, said that despite the governor's push to enforce the current
law, the act has systematic problems that need to be addressed.
Because of this, the commission and other advocates say they would
like to see legislation passed that places the changes into law, so
that future administrations can follow suit.
Mike Lawlor, OPM undersecretary for criminal justice policy, said his
office has already begun work to implement some of the proposed
changes, due to a $1.2 million federal grant for traffic stop data
collection and analysis that has been sitting at the Department of
Transportation for the past five years. He said he believes confusion
over the grant left it untouched by previous administrations.
With the funding, OPM is creating an advisory group to oversee the
data collection, as well as continue expanding its criminal justice
information system -- an online system that streamlines data from all
police department and related agency computers. Lawlor said the
system, which will be fully integrated by the end of 2013, will allow
OPM to process data without having to wait for police department
submissions.
He said that although OPM is developing the processes, they will be
available to the African-American Affairs Commission if the amendments
do not go into effect this session.
Bridgeport Sen. Edwin Gomes said the Legislature's Judiciary Committee
is likely to raise a bill that would shift responsibility to OPM, as
well as set up an advisory committee, including stakeholders, to make
sure the law and racial profiling ban are enforced and develop a
standardized practice for all police departments to collect traffic
stop data.

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